Archive for the ‘Technology’ Category

The SuperBowl hasn’t even passed and already Congress is taking on one of it’s most important issues: baseball.

Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass), the guy who lost the last election, is apparently ticked off over a proposal to make DirecTV the exclusive host of Major League Baseball’s extra innings package, and he plains to raise the issue with the FCC.

The package, which is available on most cable systems in NJ, allows fans to watch every game during the baseball season for a fee of course. However, if the proposed deal goes through only subscribers to DirectTV will have the option to fork over good cash to watch let’s say the Brewers play the Pirates.

Now, the NFL has had this exclusive agreement with DirecTV for years without any government intervention. We’d like the NFL games to be available on cable systems and we’d like baseball games to be available as well (relax Yankee and Mets fans this is only for out of market games) but, I don’t know, maybe this isn’t something for the government to be looking into.

Kerry says this is a fairness issue but we thinks this has more to do with all the irate Red Sox fans in Massachussets.

On the bright sides, I suppose this means they have that Iraq thing under control.

Ever wonder what it would be like to kiss off Comcast, Cablevision or Time Warner for good. With today’s technology and the explosion of video programming online it’s actuall possible. Wired’s Robert Lemos did just that and the results are very interesting.

Leander Kahney has an interesting piece over at Wired about Microsoft’s Zune mp3 player. One of the major selling points for the device is that users can share songs wirelessly for free (three play limit of course).

Kahney brings up the logical yet overlooked point that unless enough Zune’s hit the marketplace this feature will be pretty useless.

Slow day today so I took a gander over at Wired and there’s a fairly positive review of Microsoft’s Zune mp3 player. Eliot Van Buskirk and Sean Michaels basically say that yeah there are some flaws with the Zune but you know the iPod ain’t that great either.

I have sort of a love-hate affair with my iPod. I think I like the idea of the iPod if only I could get it to work. That’s not entirely fair. After a rocky start, my current iPod has worked pretty much flawlessly as I creep up on the one-year anniversary.

I’d be willing to give the Zune a try if it would play all the tunes I bought from Apple over the last year, which is another big complaint I have about all of these proprietary systems. However, I’ve developed tough skin over the years and I’ve come to expect big media treating me like a big, fat, money-filled teat.

Every now and then words and wisdom can be found in the NY Times. Take this to heart all you restaurant owners with flashy Web sites. Put those business hours up on the front page. Read on How to make Your Web Site Sing for You

I keep catching the half-hour promo for the Sopranos video game on HBO. It doesn’t play as much as the Mellencamp GM commercial (that one plays in your sleep), but it’s on quite a bit and the game looks pretty interesting.

Anyone from Jersey has a special place in their heart for the Sopranos and since I practically live in the show’s backlot I had high hopes that the game wouldn’t suck and maybe it would get me through March when the show comes back on.

As the last season proved, the Sopranos can be boring. I guess maybe it’s because what you see on the show are highlights from the characters lives. Sure, it may look like exciting busting heads and running numbers but to paraphrase Christoper there’s a lot of sitting around the pork store as well. I guess some things don’t translate to the video game world.
JC